SciFi SongFest, Songs 15-16

Bowie’s first hit (and probably his best-known sci-fi song), released a year after 2001: A Space Odyssey and a week before the Apollo 11 moon landing, looking back toward one and forward to the other, and frequently revisited and reinvented over the course of Bowie’s career:

Another version:

And another:

And yet another:

And still another:

And one more:

16. Peter Schilling, “Major Tom (Coming Home)” (1982):

And then – partly an homage, partly a re-telling, and partly a sequel (Major Tom fanfic, perhaps):